How To Stream More With A Full Time Job (Twitch Con 2018 Session Notes)

Twitch Con 2018 occurred on October 26-28 at the San Jose Convention Center. It was the first show of theirs to have sold out and is expected to grow even more in the coming years. Despite the packed attendance, there were many people that we know who weren’t able to attend. So I wanted to share some of the notes I’ve taken from attending these panels with you all.

How To Stream More with A Full-Time Job

The panelists for this session were streamers of various backgrounds but all holding full-time jobs. The focus was on tips and tricks to streaming with a full-time job. The ultimate lesson to be learned was to ensure that if streaming isn’t your full-time job, don’t treat it as such.

1. Schedule Your Time

It’s important to schedule “you” time. If your life only consists of work and Twitch, then you have to schedule some time away from both. The purpose is to avoid turning it into a job that you don’t like, which can and will happen regardless of the degree you like streaming or playing video games.

Additionally, ensure that you schedule time for your daily life. Schedule your chores or commutes. It makes it easier to avoid doing Twitch things when you’re not supposed to.

Tip: Investing in a wireless headset allows you to multitask if you do movie nights with your community!

2. Don’t Get Trapped

They called it a “trap” where people tend to do Twitch channel maintenance in their spare time. Take time to spend away from video games and from your computer. Go hiking, walking, to the gym. Read a book.

Don’t wait for your friends to schedule time with you. Try to take the initiative and plan something with them. Regardless of your level of intro- or extroversion, most people need people time.

3. Takes Break For Your Audience

When you’re tired, not in the mood, upset, (and they even mentioned grieving), it shows on stream. Regardless of how well you think you’re hiding your mood, your audience will know. This leads to a less than quality on stream and poor engagement with your viewers. People will notice when you’re grumpy or tired. Don’t hit that “Go Live” button if you don’t have the drive to stream.

Take breaks during stream or end streams early if need be. It’s also okay to cancel streams if you need to. Be consistent when you can, but update your social media when you’re going to cancel. If you don’t have a Twitter, it might be a good time to get one, as it is easy to communicate with your community (and make friends at the same time!)

Remember that you can always play games with your community without streaming if that’s something you’d want to do!

4. Listen to your body!

Tired? Sick? Take time to rest!

There are steps that everyone needs to be reminded of. Sometimes we easily forget about ourselves when we’re so into our own work, so it’s nice to be reminded that you can and should take breaks. Your community will understand and if they don’t, they might not be people you want a part of your community.

The main point is, if you love streaming, don’t kill it for yourself!!